My Dying Bride

For Lies I Sire

Written by: EW on 02/04/2009 23:45:59

Some things in the musical world will never cease to be: Limp Bizkit will always be shite, Metallica will never get close to how good they were in the 80's, My Dying Bride will never sound happy, and Kerrang! will always manage to sound hopelessly misinformed, even when unusually being correct about something. Describing Britain's kings of misery as "the Champions of Gloom" as quoted in the blurb of "For Lies I Sire" sounds hilariously bad, even if actually true, that I wonder why Kerrang! even bothers covering any real metal at all these days. My Dying Bride should be a household name to anyone with the faintest interest in depressing, dark, gothic-y, doomed metal are back in town with their 10th album since 1992's debut "As The Flower Withers". And yes, even after all these years they have not cheered up in the slightest.

Describing the sound of MDB is pointless - every single death/doom band since owes their existence to these Yorkshire men. They crystallise the already down-trodden sound of Candlemass and Trouble into a more fragile, mournful, morose tone, before adding the masterstroke of some serious heavy death metal into the mix, resulting in a style perversely likable yet wholesomely negative. Key ingredients in this have always been Aaron Stainthorpe's bleak vocals, often reduced to a whisper-in-the-ear, and to the delight of MDB's legions of fan, the return of a full-time violinist in the band. Nothing quite wrenches the heart as does the grating strings of a well-played violin, best evidenced in "Santuario Di Sangue" on this album, but used to classic effect on so much of the band's early back catalogue. The 'Bride haven't changed a great deal of late - the predominance of the DM/growled material is now a sideshow, only raising its head in the excellent "A Chapter In Loathing", but the painful melody that underpins every MDB song is possibly it's most potent here on "For Lies I Sire" than it has been in ages. Though probably the other way round in respect of who might have influenced whom, there is a distinct feel of Warning in the monumental scales of "Echoes From A Hollow Soul", where the lead guitars do their damned best in attempting to beat the miserable violin at it's own game, and probably in a first for a My Dying Bride album, the strong smell of Kreator in "Bring Me Victory".

I get the impression "For Lies I Sire" will feature different favourite tracks for many people - the aforementioned "Santuario Di Sangue" with a lead riff so DOOM it should be patented, "A Chapter In Loathing", and my numero uno, closer "Death Triumphant" showcasing the finest example of twin lead guitars on the album, set in the grand tradition of the just-as-negative Mourning Beloveth. Though MDB will probably never top the much-loved "Turn Loose The Swans", "For Lies I Sire" is wonderfully admirable and deserving of respect in it's own right. In the world of doom metal few are consistent as My Dying Bride - they really are some champions of gloom. Shit, now I'm saying it...

8

Download: Santuario Di Sangue, Death Triumphant
For The Fans Of: Paradise Lost, Anathema, Warning
Listen: Myspace
Buy: iTunes

Release date: 23.03.09
Peaceville Records

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